NINE Federal lawmakers representing Anambra State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National Assembly including Senators Andy Uba and Stella Oduah have written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) regarding their status with respect to the Supreme Court judgment that sacked the leadership of the party in the state.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC by their lawyer, Chief Arthur Okafor (SAN), the politicians insisted that the Supreme Court judgment delivered on Friday has not in any way rendered their seats vacant at both chambers of the National Assembly.
The letter dated January 29, 2016 with the title “RE: JUDGMENT IN SC. 37/2015 “, the lawmakers urged the INEC Chairman to “ resist the machinations of those who are ill motivated and bent on causing confusion in the system. If you find that our clients were nominated by the National Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the case, then in the absence of a Court Order, there will be no compulsion or justification on your part to interfere with the mandate vested in our clients by the PDP and the electorate.”
They insisted that the primary election that produce them as candidates for the 2015 general elections was conducted by the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as required by law and not the Anambra chapter of the PDP as being insinuated.
In a similar vein, another legal practitioner and one of the counsels to the affected lawmakers, Mr. Obunike Ohaegbu has faulted the insinuation that the Supreme Court removed the NASS members.
Ohaegbu, in a statement said that there was never a time the candidacy of the NASS members was the subject in the matter decided by the Supreme Court on Friday last week.
He noted that the apex court never in direct or implied pronouncement made any decision on the members as the issue the court decided on was on the proper PDP exco in the state.
There had been insinuations that the lawmakers may have lost their seats in the National Assembly following a Supreme Court judgment that set aside a factional leadership of PDP in Anambra.
But their lawyer, Okafor SAN said that the judgment did not in any way affect the validity of their election.
He cited two judgments of the Supreme Court to support his argument that the lawmakers were not removed by the judgment.
He said: “In two remarkable pronouncements, the Supreme Court of Nigeria eloquently held that no list other than that forwarded by the National Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) shall be countenanced by the Commission.
“In EMEKA v. OKADIGBO (2012) 18 NWLR (Part 1331) 55 at 87 Paras H-C the court held thus:-
‘A diligent reading of the above reveals that it is the National Executive Committee of the PDP that is responsible for the conduct of the party’s National Assembly primaries. The Court of Appeal was correct. There can only be one valid primary and that is the primaries conducted by the National Executive Committee. A primary conducted by the State Chapter of the PDP is not a primary. It is an illegal contraption that carries with it no rights. It is a complete nullity. The primaries conducted on the 8th of January, 2011 were conducted by the National Executive Committee of the PDP, and it was the only authentic primaries conducted by the PDP to choose its candidate for the Anambra North Senatorial Seat. On the other hand, the purported primaries conducted on the 10th or 12th of January, 2011 were conducted by the State Chapter of the PDP. It is null and void for the purpose of choosing the PDP’s candidate for the senatorial elections. It is clear that at no time were two parallel primaries conducted.”
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